Ramblings on Chaos

[refuse]

from 2008:

 

After Reading the Slaanesh Liber Chaotic, I had some thoughts (and no radio in my car so I had time to think).

We know that Slaanesh/Khorne/Nurgle/Tzeentch were created by the impact on the Warp that sentient minds have. We know that over time the "energy" of those minds transformed the warp from a stable calm place into the wildly crazy place it is now in the 41 Millennium.

So for this discussion lets say the warp is a colorless plane, and all the emotions are colors (for simplicity). Lets say that each act/thought is a color, and when done, this color is reflected in the Warp, tinting the Warp/real space where the act happens. So when a large number of people have the same color experiences, the warp/real space in that area weakens, and we have Chaos incursions. Also let say that each thought/act colors the person's soul.

This can also be helped along by areas where specific acts of that color are happening. So if a huge plague outbreaks, and the people thoughts turn to those of Nurgle, then the barrier can weaken, and Nurgle has access to the people in the area (to either bless or harvest).


Ok, now lets say you take a real devotee of Chaos. This person is only a single person. But they have spent a huge amount of time building up the Favor of Chaos. But perhaps they didn't. Perhaps what it is, is they are slowly coloring their soul. We know that (in 40k) souls go back to the Warp, and are "recycled". Souls that are powerful enough (it would have to be real powerful) can be reborn into the physical world. 

So back to our person. Perhaps they perform acts that reflect on the Warp. But they are also coloring their souls. So lets say that the soul is a mini-warp battery. If you die, your soul is consumed by the power that it most mimics (matches colors). If your soul is pretty color less, it disolves. If you are powerful enough, you can maintain the "cohesiveness of the soul" and be reborn. But perhaps, if during a lifetime, your soul becomes colored enough that it starts attracting more of the color? Such as a Chaos Lord. And now your soul starts creating an attraction to that color. So your soul actually starts weaking the warp/real space barrier. 

Now at some point, if you have enough warp energy, or you have thinned the barrier, the Warp Energy flows through the thinned barrier, and into the person. Now if the person is a good match for the color that comes through a New Daemon prince is born. If they were not ready for the color, or they had other colors "tainting" their soul, they are warped by the incoming colors, and a Chaos Spawn is born.


So on the other side of this, the most beneficial souls to the Chaos Gods would be those of their own followers. But before the follower can open the barrier and become a prince or spawn. So in the case of Khorne, a bloodthirsty warrior would be more "tasty" then a non-warrior. Though the "death" of the soul would taint it to be a small taste. For Slaanesh, the acts performed on a victim would color both the person committing the act, and the person the act is committed upon. This would also explain why Nurgle waxes and wanes, it depends on the Plagues to open people to Nurgle.

But this also explains the biggest problem Chaos has. To gain favor (color your soul) you need to "sacrifice"/Battle other champions of your own color. Their souls would be worth more, as they are a purer color.

Ok, a bit of fluff to support my idea.

There were these guys. The Shamans. They were immortal. But not in the sense they lived forever, but that even when they died, they were reborn. They could live for ever.

But this was before the spread of humanity. Back in the times when humanity was limited to one planet.

And of all the races, humans have the largest impact on the Warp. So during the time the Shamans lived, and helped mankind, the warp was calm. So "lesser" spirits could be reborn, as the warp had (from the example above) no color.

But as humanity spread and their passions/thoughts colored the Warp, one by one the Shamans were dissolved into the Warp. Absorbed by the warp, as they could not maintain themselves in the more turbulent warp.

So the Shaman decided they needed to take the next step, and protect humanity from this turbulent Warp. They committed ritual suicide together, and merged their warp presence, and were reborn as the Emperor. (This is the real old fluff).

In addition, the Slaan use to teach the Eldar, that a "perfect" mind could survive death, and be reborn into a mortal body. So the Slaan had perfected this, and even death wasn't a fear to them, as they would be reborn.

But Again, along comes humanity and we stir up the Warp. Now in the Necron Codex it is suggested that the Necrons "seeded" humanity. This had two major effects. 
1) Some humans are born Warp Blind. In that they do not reflect in the warp, and they are not touchable from the Warp. The humans use these as assassins (cullex?) and the Necrons harvest them to be Pariahs.

2) The average human creates a larger then average effect on the Warp. The helps the Necrons by preventing Warp Entities from being reborn, and all but eliminated the Ancient Slaan. But the back fire of this, is that the energies of those souls coalesced and created the Chaos Powers. Much more powerful then the Slaan, but very fragmented.

So where does this leave us?

Well the average soul upon death is "absorbed" back into the Warp, feeding the Warp powers (contributing to their energy). It's power isn't enough to maintain itself, and the "predators" of the warp tear it apart for the "colors" inside of it. But what of those of significant color? Their souls are drawn to the larger colors. Feeding and empowering them. Now this doesn't' mean that only the 4 major powers get this energy, there could be hundreds of smaller "shades" that draw off this power, but are infact autonomous portions of the larger. (think Khaine and Khorne).

So an example could be the astronomicon. The Emperor is a Warp Power, he is fed souls of psykers, untainted by Chaos, purged of their colors. But his body is left in the Material world, binding his mind to the sole purpose of the Astronomicon. The fear being his death, or perhaps the fact that he hasn't died, has prevented the new Warp Power from being unleased.

Or perhaps think of Warp Storms as "undigested" soul energy. When the Eldar were becoming decadent, they created a lot of this energy that wasn't being eaten/absorbed. Then Slaanesh started sucking up all this power, and the warp storms abated, or were consumed along with real space.

Or perhaps when warp storms precede Chaos incursions, it is chaos that comes to feed upon this energy, much as the C'Tan feed upon the "real" world energy of stars. So Cultist activities, create a fertile feeding ground for the Chaos Gods, and they send their Havesters (CSM) to free the souls and energy from the material world.


Alright, but back to the problem, with the birth of the Chaos Warp Gods, what happens to souls now. Is immortality sealed off?

No, it has changed. The new advantage is that those who "perfect" the mind, now gain true immortality. 

Oh wait you say, I don't understand.

Ok.

The Slaan taught that by perfecting the mind, your death allowed your "soul" to go to the warp, to be reborn in a new form in the material world.

But now we see that Daemon Prince status is the new immortality. You are merging your Warp Presence with your Material presence. If you die in the Material World, your warp presence survives, and you can return to the material world at a later time. If your warp presence is destroyed, your material presence still exists and you can reform your warp presence. Only when your "material" form is in the warp, can you be truly destroyed.

Now the assumption is there are 4 Chaos powers (The four most basic of things). But we know that non-aligned people become Daemon Princes also. So that means that there are alot more then 4 colors to the Warp. And you do not have to ascribe to one of those 4 to gain the "perfection".

No, that all said and done, perhaps Daemon Prince status is the "perfection" of mind that the Slaan were talking about. When your mind is "perfect" there is a permanent conduit between the Warp and you. This conduit isn't one of the Psycker, where you draw power for spells and sorcery, but one of Raw power.

So if we assume that the pure energy of thought and souls are what created the Chaos Gods, and the Shamans were pure tought and souls (they transcended death), then the Emperor would be a "WARP" God. Just as the Chaos Gods are "warp" gods. But they are reflections of thoughts, while the Emperor is the "uncolored" thoughts.

So there could be lots of "good" daemon princes. Persons who found "perfection" of color and obtained Daemon Prince status, but are not affiliated or bound with one of the 4 major Chaos powers. Perhaps even portions of the Emperor's Power (sensei are the children of the Emperor, psychic blanks, or self contained, immortal warp creatures). Perhaps that when one isn't associated with colors, but is "perfect" they loose the connection to the Warp, becoming a blank. 

Also, while it would be harder for persons now to obtain "perfection" as they only have a few lives before their soul energy is absorbed, how does anyone make it to be a Daemon Prince? Well, the quick way is Chaos. Simple and quite well defined. The major human emotions are easy to tap, and awate the proper person to draw on their power.

But perhaps there are other ways. Perhaps the "soul" can be a reflection of need, or a sum of parts that came before it. Perhaps when a group of humans are of the same type (despare, hope, faithful, decadent), the warp in their area of real space is "colored" by their experiences. And this warp energy that isn't absorbed by larger warp entities is used in forming new souls is pre-colored, or pre-shaped (in the case of uncolored souls) to allow persons to reach Daemon Prince status. So on a really pious Imperial World, there might be born "god" like humans, that are favored by "gods", when in reality it is the warp energy of those who came before them, spawned back into human form. Kind of like how an hero is born to meet a challenge. The impression of the mind on the warp, would encourage the warp to provide a stronger soul to one birth to absorb this "energy" and rise to meet the challenge.

The connection between humans and the Warp would explain why only humans become daemon princes. 

Eldar are to binary. They follow paths and such. The original eldar gods (warp gods?) are long gone, and quite weak when compared to the human created gods. Khaine is not nearly as powerful as Khorne, and the Eldar Decadence wasn't really into full swing until humanity too to the stars and provided the raw material for the Eldar's decadence to shape into Slaanesh.

Orks have Gork and Mork, and perhaps those two gods are so closely tied to the Orks that the ork Souls are absorbed by them without the chance of returning.

Dark Eldar are tied to Slaanesh. Pre-colored if I could say by Slaanesh. Their souls forfeit to Slaanesh at birth.

Tau have almost no warp signature. The only species to grow into space without the interference of the C'Tan or the Slaan?

The Tyranids have a massive warp "GOD" or presence. The Hive mind. Perhaps it is "free" thought that creates the warp energy, and the Hive mind is the only free thought, and thus the huge "shadow" it creates in the Warp. It blocks out all that it touches, overshadowing it.
 

[Kilofix]

Couple of thoughts on this fluffy philosophical topic:

 

"Perfection" is subjective and / or misleading semantics. It is probably more appropriate to just specifically say "strong and focused warp presence or power" - which you do infer to at points.

 

The other factor you infer to but don't actually say is "sentience". One needs enough "force of will" to maintain "sentience" while having "warp presence or power".

 

If you miss one or the other then you get recycled.

 

More humans tend to have both. Eldar intentionally stifle the former. Orks are limited in the latter.

 

Lastly, I would argue that the Emperor and the Hive Mind are colored. Everyone sentient is colored.

[refuse]

Yes, the Emperor and Hive mind are colored.

 

Though I would argue that the Hive is mostly mindless, therefor the hive doesn't contribute to the Hivemind, the way that souls contribute to the Emperor and Chaos gods.

 

 

 

6 - Slaanesh

7 - Nurgle

8 - Khorne

9 - Tzeentch

10 - Emperor

 

  My assumption is the complexity/level of emotion.

 

6 - Baser desires.  Desire to be perfect, desire to be pleasured.

7 - Will to live.  So living against disease

8 - Vengence, mindlessness

9 - Need for change.  

10 - Obedience, the want for structure.

[Forté]

Don't forget that Nurgle actually celebrates life and the creation of life too. In his own way.

[Kilofix]

I don't know about the complexity / level of emotion either though. I don't think one is 'higher' or more complex then the other. They're just different.

As a Disciple of Slaanesh, I'd say it's pretty complicated to be perfect.

Those Khorne folk are the boring ones.

Reason our cardinal number is 6 is because we only have 6 fingers and toes and can only count up to 6.

Also, using Plutchik's emotional classification (color):

Slaanesh is Ecstacy, Khorne is Rage, Nurgle is Grief, Tzeentch is Anticipation;

And:

The Emperor is Awe / Admiration, the Hive Mind is Terror, the Laughing God is Amazement / Surprise, the Necron Gods are Loathing.

[Forté]

The emperor is no god

[refuse]

I don't know about the complexity / level of emotion either though. I don't think one is 'higher' or more complex then the other. They're just different.

As a Disciple of Slaanesh, I'd say it's pretty complicated to be perfect.

Those Khorne folk are the boring ones.

Reason our cardinal number is 6 is because we only have 6 fingers and toes and can only count up to 6.

Also, using Plutchik's emotional classification (color):

Slaanesh is Ecstacy, Khorne is Rage, Nurgle is Grief, Tzeentch is Anticipation;

And:

The Emperor is Awe / Admiration, the Hive Mind is Terror, the Laughing God is Amazement / Surprise, the Necron Gods are Loathing.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-35yJr9QjzeM/ToQEM2cGy2I/AAAAAAAAMjA/NKtKo9ElKxo/s640/1000px-Plutchik-wheel_svg.png

[Plague Angel]

Sorry, but all I can think about now is Green Lantern.